First Lady Michelle Obama claps along with students as they sing during her visit to Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 9, 2011 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

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The Week Ahead:

Sunday: The President has no public events scheduled.

Monday: The President welcomes President Hollande of France to Washington for a State Visit. They will tour Monticello, the residence of Thomas Jefferson, one of the United States’ earliest envoys to France.

Tuesday: The President and First Lady will officially welcome President Hollande with an arrival ceremony, after which the Presidents will have a bilateral meeting and press conference. That evening, the President and First Lady will host a State Dinner for President Hollande.

Wednesday: The President will attend meetings at the White House.

Thursday: The President will attend meetings at the White House.

Friday: The President will deliver remarks at the House Democratic Issues Conference in Cambridge, Maryland. Following the conference the President will depart for Rancho Mirage, California, for a meeting with His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan at Sunnylands, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Estate.

A lawsuit challenging Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan that was filed by fellow Republicans in the state Legislature was dismissed in a ruling released Saturday, handing Brewer a major victory in her battle against conservative members of her own party.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper agreed with Brewer that the lawmakers challenging the law don’t have the right to sue, saying their argument that a hospital assessment included in House Bill 2010 that passed in June required a supermajority vote of the Legislature under Arizona’s Constitution was incorrect.

Cooper’s ruling said it is the Legislature itself that determines if a 2/3 vote is required under a voter-approved constitutional amendment called Proposition 108.

The protesters came to Raleigh on Saturday by bus and car and on foot. They came from various parts of North Carolina and from nearby states. They came from many places on behalf of varied causes, but they were driven by a single imperative – to stand up. There were the usual protesters – labor and civil rights supporters – and some unlikely ones, school teachers. Teachers’ jobs often involve keeping order among the unruly, but they’ve learned there is no virtue in keeping quiet about pay that’s near the lowest in the nation. To see the long ranks of protesters was to wonder how much longer North Carolina’s Republican leaders can dismiss them as a rabble, as outsiders, as “takers,” as agitators, and not see them for who they are: The People.

Their issues include labor conditions, pay for public employees, environmental protections, voting rights, fair taxation, help for the unemployed, gay rights, abortion rights and civil rights. But another of their issues is one they hold in common: They feel they are not being heard. And the deafness of the state’s political powers is deliberate. Legislative leaders and the governor can’t hear above the sound of the corporate money that steers their agenda. And even if they could, they wouldn’t listen. The people in the streets holding signs and chanting are not people they consider “the mainstream” or “real Americans.”

Same-sex married couples will receive many of the same federal legal protections and benefits as their opposite-sex counterparts under Justice Department guidelines to be issued Feb. 10, Attorney General Eric Holder said. The moves will affect procedures in U.S. courtrooms and the aid provided surviving spouses of slain law officers, among other matters. The policy will “formally instruct all Justice Department employees to give lawful same-sex marriages full and equal recognition, to the greatest extent possible under the law,” Holder said in remarks

Doing more for LGBT rights than any other President and Attorney General in the United States of America.
Thanks. http://t.co/mFw76Zat0i

The change will apply to same-sex couples residing in states where such marriages are not recognized. It also represents the first time the Justice Department has officially interpreted the words “spouse” and “marriage” in federal laws it enforces to apply to same-sex couples. “As attorney general, I will not let this department be simply a bystander during this important moment in history,” Holder said. Under the policy, the Justice Department will recognize that same sex couples are entitled to the same rights as their opposite-sex counterparts in civil and criminal cases, according to Holder. As a result, Holder said, federal prosecutors won’t object if a same-sex spouse declines to provide testimony that might incriminate his or her partner.

Election supervisors and the League of Women Voters have a new complaint with Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature over early voting. After years of complaints by supervisors who struggled with historically long lines at the polls in 2012, lawmakers last year expanded the list of early voting sites to include fairgronds, civic centers, courthouses, county commission buildings, stadiums, convention centers and government-owned community centers. But when the city of Gainesville — which is heavily Democratic — asked if it could use the University of Florida student union for early voting in next month’s municipal elections, the state said no.

“I’m very upset about this,” said Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards, president of a statewide supervisors’ group. “I just can’t understand why they feel the need to be so restrictive about where people are allowed to vote … This is strategic. They’re worried about young people voting.” The union, named for former UF President J. Wayne Reitz, is used as a regular voting precinct in county, state and national elections. About 50,000 students attend UF, and the city said the request to use the Reitz Union for early voting came from a group of students. With the UF student union now off limits, the city plans to use two early voting sites for the March 11 election, assistant city attorney Nicolle Shalley said. One is about 1.5 miles away and the other about three miles away

AOL Inc.’s Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said Saturday the company would reverse a recent change to its employee 401(k) policy and he apologized for remarks used to explain the rationale for the initial change in the benefits policy. The company had recently moved to a policy in which employees get an annual lump sum 401(k) contribution from AOL at the end of the year, rather than matching contributions each pay period.

On Thursday, Mr. Armstrong had caused a stir with employees and on social media when he said that care for two staffers’ “distressed babies” in 2012 cost the company about $1 million each. He used that example to help explain the rationale for changing the 401(k) policy. Mr. Armstrong was accused of using the infants as cover for the unpopular policy change and was criticized for singling out the two mothers.

IAEA: IAEA And Iran Joint Media Statement In Connection With Implementation Of Framework For Cooperation

Following talks between IAEA and Iranian experts in Tehran, the two sides today released the following joint statement: On 8 and 9 February 2014, the Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) held constructive technical meetings within the Framework for Cooperation that was agreed between the parties last November. During the meetings, the two sides reviewed progress on the implementation of the six initial practical measures that were agreed three months ago. Iran has taken the initial practical measures that were foreseen.

Iran and the Agency reached agreement on seven practical measures to be implemented by Iran by 15 May 2014. The agreed measures are: Providing mutually agreed relevant information and managed access to the Saghand mine in Yazd; Providing mutually agreed relevant information and managed access to the Ardakan concentration plant; Submission of an updated Design Information Questionnaire (DIQ) for the IR-40 Reactor; Taking steps to agree with the Agency on the conclusion of a Safeguards Approach for the IR-40 Reactor

A member of the Missouri House of Representatives has filed articles of impeachment against Governor Jay Nixon (D) for ordering Missouri’s Department of Revenue to accept joint tax returns filed by same-sex couples who have been legally married in other states. According to Missourinet, Representative Nick Marshall (R-Parkville) has filed two articles of impeachment charging that Gov. Nixon issued an executive order that is a “direct violation” of Missouri’s Constitution.

Further, Marshall says Nixon “misstates and misrepresents the meaning and requirements under Missouri’s constitutional and statutory law and thereby misleads the citizens of this state.” In November of last year, Gov. Nixon issued an executive order stating that Missouri must accept such joint returns because Missouri’s tax code is tied directly to the federal government, and the state requires married couples who file joint returns to also file state taxes jointly. The office of Attorney General Chris Koster (D) has stated that Nixon’s order appears to comply with Missouri law.

The Star Ledger “blew” its fall endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie’s (R-N.J.) reelection campaign, a member of the Newark, N.J., newspaper’s editorial board wrote on Sunday. “An endorsement is not a love embrace. It is a choice between two flawed human beings. And the winner is often the less bad option. But yes, we blew this one,” Tom Moran wrote.

“Yes, we knew Christie was a bully,” he added. “But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.”

Hardball politics and campaign trickery are as American as apple pie, but even in that rough and tumble world, some rules apply. A new Republican fundraising tactic reminiscent of “spoofing” telemarketing scams has some asking where the line is these days between clever campaigning and fraud. At first glance, AnnKirkpatrick.com looks like any normal campaign website. A big picture of the smiling Arizona Democrat stands next to a “Kirkpatrick For Congress” banner above a fat “DONATE” button, all in the same colors as those used by the real website for Kirkpatrick, who’s fighting to keep her House seat. Read closer and the text of the site reveals lines like “Kirkpatrick is a huge embarrassment to Arizona,”

but anyone who didn’t bother to read the site closely (or who couldn’t due to bad eyesight) before trying to make a donation to Kirkpatrick’s campaign would find that they’d just contributed to the coffers of the National Republican Congressional Committee—the House GOP’s campaign arm backing Kirkpatrick’s opponent. Annkirkpatrick.com is one of a series of websites (TIME has found 16, so far) the NRCC has set up that are clearly designed to trick the viewer—at least at first—into thinking they’re on a legitimate campaign website. In at least one instance, reported by the Tampa Bay Times on Monday, a Florida doctor accidentally donated to the NRCC through a spoofed website for Democrat Alex Sink (that site has since been taken down and the NRCC gave the doctor his money back).

More here

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CBO score says the unemployment bill that Republicans filibustered shaved about $1.2B off the deficit. cbo.gov/sites/default/…

Joe Conason: Deficit Of Truth: What Republicans Hope You Don’t Know And Never Find Out

Listening to Republicans in Congress wailing incessantly about our spendthrift culture raises a nagging question: What would they do, besides talking, if they actually wanted to reduce federal deficits and, eventually, the national debt? First, they would admit that President Obama’s policies, including health care reform, have already reduced deficits sharply, as promised. Second, they would desist from their hostage-taking tactics over the debt ceiling, which have only damaged America’s economy and international prestige. And then they would finally admit that basic investment and job creation, rather than cutting food stamps, represent the best way to reduce both deficits and debt, indeed the only way — through economic growth.

Fortunately for those Republicans and sadly for everyone else, the American public has little comprehension of current fiscal realities. Most people don’t even know that the deficit is shrinking rather than growing. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it is Republican voters, misinformed by Fox News, who most fervently and consistently insist on these mistaken ideas, with 85 percent telling pollsters that the deficit has increased. Less than a third of Democrats gave that answer. But nearly 60 percent of independent voters agree with the Republicans on that question

Washington Post: We Hit The Debt Ceiling Today. These Charts Show When We Could Default

Today, for the fourth time in three years, the nation will hit the federal debt limit, launching a mad rush to raise the legal cap on borrowing or risk an unprecedented default. The Treasury Department now will deploy “extraordinary measures” — effectively, accounting techniques — to buy time before the government is at risk of running out of cash to meet all of daily obligations. The Treasury says it can’t promise to meet all obligations past late February, and as shown in this chart, based on data from Nancy Vanden Houten of Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, the administration definitely won’t be able to make it past the first two weeks of March.

Just a few hours after returning from the town hall in Elkhart, Ind., President Obama is introduced at his first prime-time press conference at the White House, Feb. 9, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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First Lady Michelle Obama hugs student Tammy Nguyen in the Red Room of the White House before an event announcing a campaign to combat the rapidly growing problem of childhood obesity while Tiki Barber checks his notes before they take the stage, Feb. 9, 2010 (Photo by Samantha Appleton)

After delivering remarks at the daily press briefing, President Obama smiles as he walks past Press Assistant Priya Singh through the Lower Press Office of the White House en route to the Oval Office, Feb. 9, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Pete Souza: “During a spirited bi-partisan Congressional leadership meeting, both the President and House Minority Leader (soon to be Speaker of the House) John Boehner speak at the same time.” Feb. 9, 2010

President Obama, the First Family, Vice President Joe Biden and others in the audience applaud Joan Baez after her singing “We Shall Overcome” at the “In Performance At The White House: A Celebration Of Music From The Civil Rights Movement” concert in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 9, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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First Lady Michelle Obama at Burgess-Peterson Academy, Feb 9, 2011

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First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas to highlight the military’s efforts to improve the nutrition of food served, Feb 9, 2012

First Lady Michelle Obama kicks off a nationwide tour celebrating the second anniversary of “Lets”s Move”, Des Moines, February 9, 2012

First Lady Michelle Obama at a “Let’s Move” event attended by over 10,000 youths at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines

That U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm who was the first major-party African-American candidate for the U.S. Presidency survived THREE assassination attempts during her 1972 presidential campaign.

She created controversy when she visited presidential primary rival and previously known segregationist Governor George Wallace in the hospital soon after his shooting in May 1972. She said it was the humane thing to do. Several years later, when Chisholm worked as a U.S. Congresswoman on a bill to give domestic workers the right to a minimum wage, Governor Wallace helped her gain votes of enough Southern congressmen to push the legislation through the House.

Look on the bright side – you’ll be ‘so old’ you’ll be bogged down by life’s responsibilities and have no time to worry about football. Heck, Rooney and a few others will be so old *they* will have retired…..or been retired!

I caught a bot of Candy Crowley this morning and she and her guess were talking about why President Obama didn’t go to the Winter Olympics, or maybe send VP Biden or First Lady Obama. Is this dissing Putin and will it hurt Russia- U.S relationship. I’m glad, POTUS, FLOTUS or the VP Biden didn’t go. It’s not safe. I will not feel comfortable till the U.S. team come home. A sports caster on ESPN said that the IOC had no business giving the Winter Olympics to Russia, it’s not safe over there.

I saw that reporter said he ended up eating that honey with his breakfast—–it was obviously “natural” and “organic”, as advertised.
Other than the initial reporter complaints about vital things missing in some of the hotel rooms—–like light bulbs and water, the Olympics seems to be proceeding without problems. I’m watching ice dancing now which is always lovely to watch, as they make it look so easy gliding and dancing around the rink. My dad is responsible for my affection for ice skating—-as the only family excursions we got, other than dozens of fishing trips to northern Minnesota and Canada, was our annual trek to the Minneapolis Ice Follies. I think my dad thought all those gal skaters were cute in their skimpy glittery little outfits. And I was happy to escape to Minneapolis from small town Iowa, and it was much more fun than sitting in a fishing boat, learning how to put a poor minnow on a hook. I hated that part.
And we did have a great ice skating park in my home town, which my mom and dad took my sister and I to all the time—-spent many hours of the winter there. They had music speakers in the trees and at night there would be a midnight skate where the lights would go off and boys!!! would skate up behind you and ask to be your skate date—–it was so exciting!!! 🙂
And a few years ago I took my kids to a skating rink here in Illinois, and was anxious to show off my expertise—-I had been bragging about it for years——but whoa!——it’s not like getting back on a bicycle—–shins were in pain—-could not glide around the rink like in the old days. Too old with unused leg muscles. Kids laughed.
Sorry for my run on comment—-one thought led to another—–all from a bee in honey.

Oh flip Africa, found you stuck in spam again. This looks like it might be a repeat of a problem others have had before with Akismet, the bunch who deal with spam on WordPress, they filter out all the crazy stuff that floods in to WP comments.

But they screw up, a lot, and sometimes mistakenly add usernames to their spam list. Would you contact them here http://akismet.com/contact/ and explain what’s been happening? If they ask, you can tell them you are not blocked at the site, and nothing in your comments that went to spam matches any of the blocked names/words here.

Click anywhere outside that comment box and choose the ‘I think Akismet is catching my comments by mistake’ option, and take it from there. It’ll only take a minute, and generally they sort it out quickly.

Glad the crew at DKos and many in the “professional left” don’t run the White House. Remember all the calls for Holder to resign? I especially recall whiny Bill Press was one of the loudest of the bunch.

Another snowbound day! Actually, we now have ice on top of snow hoping we will have just rain instead of freezing rain today. Thanks for the yummy cake yesterday. LOL that was my only bday cake! I especially liked that you asked PBO to deliver it.

I was here with you and the Olympics. Today I have been able to get to my garage due to a girl in the neighborhood shoveling my walk. That was surely nice of her. I got to use my exercise machine and bring in some food from the freezer. It broke my cabin fever.

Sometimes our fellow Democratic voters are so exhausting. I call them the too late Democrats… NJ, NC, Wisconsin, Florida… all places we have to fix because Democrats either didn’t get to the polls or trusted repubs. When will we learn that we can never let our guards down whether it’s at the national, state, or local level? We have to stay informed and vote Democrat. Even if we may not fully embrace the Democratic candidate, we’ve got to keep our eyes on the big picture and know that repubs support their policies and their policies hurt America.

Well howdy doody all you O’s!! Another great getting up day ’round the old TOD campfire!!!

I’ve shoveled for the eleventy billionth time this morning, now as per the weather pattern, we’re in for frigid cold, then it’s snow again. This is getting to be a real drag and is dampening my otherwise cheery disposition. Even the kids are tired of it. The other day, while out shoveling, a little girl on her way to school, says to me, “Miss, I’m so tired of this snow!” I replied, ‘Yep, I feel ya, sweetie’ Poor thing, her book bag was bigger than she was.

Normally, little boys would be throwing snowballs and reveling in the powder. Now, they just shuffle through it, wandering aimlessly, with a dazed look, devoid of any frivolity.

The only little boy I’m hanging around these days is my three-y/o great grandson, who lived in Florida until the end of last year, where he’d be running outside to play today in flip-flops. He’s too young to know he should be tired of this weather in Illinois. When he first saw snow, he stopped in his tracks and said, “What’s that?” Now, he just wants to “throw snowballs at the mailman” – his buddy – from inside the house.

So, I’ve been trying to see things through his eyes … but, nearly devoid of any frivolity, all I really feel like tellin’ ya is, “Miss, I’m so tired of this snow!”

Good Morning/Evening to my Chips and TOD family. Thanks again Nerdy W., for all that you do to inform us and present us with so many wonderful memories of our POTUS and FLOTUS. I was just doing some night reading before retiring for bed last evening; and I pulled out a Vanity Fair magazine from 2009 with President Obama on the cover issue.

I read with delight again the entire feature and looked closely at the photos of some of his present and past Cabinet members. We have been so blessed to have been so inspired to allow our hearts, minds, and souls to reach out and listen to the then Senator Barack Obama as he gave the Keynote Address in 2004 for John Kerry. What that young senator and brilliant mind stirred up in all of us is undeniablly a great moment. Life is a space for light to shine and cast out those forces within our spaces that so often want to put out our lights within our precious spaces.
We must keep listening, reading and watching what this young man, now our President is still saying. But we said, “Yes, in 2004, again in 2008, and again in 2012. Now we continue to light our Candles of Actions in 2013 to continue to cast out the naysayers of “can’t” and speak with boldness, “Yes We Will For 2014.”

I was moved, as I sat in my quiet space of centering my soul within my space this morning;, and I just had to speak out loudly with much thanksgiving that we here at TOD are still lighting our candles for light to help guide us in casting out as much of the naysayers words as possible.
This is one reason why I love candles so much in my space. No matter what I am going through, and a little voice of “I cannot” or “I am fearful” tries to sneak in . The light and warmth from my candles deposit a peaceful burning in my heart that warms my soul to look back and see where I have been, where I need and desire to go, and how I am willing to take as many steps of faith and goodness to get there with POB.

I feel so blessed to be with this TOD family who have willing hearts to continue to gently bend the arch so that we can all walk through it with a pride of making sure that we have invited all to help us bend it a little more each day. The candles we burn give us the light to see where we need to go and the warmth to help stay steady and focus to see the bending of that arch with a deep love, a pure compassion, and a well of dignity with purpose of goodness.

Purchase your candles, and try to keep them lit. When you feel the need, and remember to pull out some of those magazines then hold them in your hands and realize what power we still have and what Hope we still have to continue to help this beautiful and brilliant President of these United States of America. So let us all Act With Action in 2013 through his last day at noon on 2017.

“One candle can light up a town
One candle can light up a city
One candle can light up a state
One candle can light up a nation,
And one candle can light up a world.” So let us start lighting those candles and together spread our Actions of Goodness with our POTUS. ()HZ